Category Archives: Financial Implications

Overly Simple Energy-Economy Models Give Misleading Answers

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

Does it make a difference if our models of energy and the economy are overly simple? I would argue that it depends on what we plan to use the models for. If all we want to do is determine approximately … Continue reading →

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Energy limits: Why we see rising wealth disparity and low prices

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

Last week, I gave a fairly wide-ranging presentation at the 2016 Biophysical Economics Conference called Complexity: The Connection Between Fossil Fuel EROI, Human Energy EROI, and Debt (pdf). In this post, I discuss the portion of the talk that explains several … Continue reading →

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China: Is peak coal part of its problem?

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

The world’s coal resources are clearly huge. How could China, or the world in total, reach peak coal in a timeframe that makes a difference? If we look at China’s coal production and consumption in BP’s 2016 Statistical Review of World … Continue reading →

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$50 Oil Doesn’t Work

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

$50 per barrel oil is clearly less impossible to live with than $30 per barrel oil, because most businesses cannot make a profit with $30 per barrel oil. But is $50 per barrel oil helpful? I would argue that it … Continue reading →

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The real oil limits story; what other researchers missed

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

For a long time, a common assumption has been that the world will eventually “run out” of oil and other non-renewable resources. Instead, we seem to be running into surpluses and low prices. What is going on that was missed … Continue reading →

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